Real Madrid may have lost their La Liga title this season but come into this game as World club champions and looking to win the Champions League for the third straight year as they face Liverpool in Kiev. Madrid are by no way unbeatable though and have already lost twice in the Champions League this season losing to Tottenham and Juventus. They have only kept three clean sheets on their way to the final and two of those were against APOEL Nicosia. They are in good scoring form though, even though Ronaldo hasn’t been risked since an injury picked up soon after they reached this final with a semi-final win over Bayern Munich. Real have scored at least twice in their last seven league and cup games and this should be an open final if ever there was one.
The defending champions take on Liverpool who score lots of goals themselves but also have a defence that can’t entirely be trusted. In the early part of the season they were conceding plenty of goals and they weren’t thinking of a Champions League final at that stage. The arrival of Virgil Van Dijk has helped them but there is still the feeling that top sides can expose their defensive problems, as was the case with Roma in the semi-final. They do of course have their awesome strike force headed by Mo Salah and just how Real cope with him on Saturday is a major key to the end result. This could go either way but the worries over Liverpool’s defence sways the balance in favour of Real Madrid winning the trophy again.
Key pointsREAL MADRID – LIVERPOOL
- Real Madrid have scored at least twice in each of their last seven league and cup games.
- Liverpool have conceded at least twice in a game on 11 occasions this season.
- Real Madrid have won their last four Champions League games against Liverpool.
- Real Madrid have won their last six Champions League finals.
Real Madrid’s confirmed UCL final squad:
Keylor Navas, Casilla, Luca, Carvajal, Vallejo, Ramos, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo, Theo, Achraf, Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Llorente, Asensio, Isco, Kovacic, Ceballos, Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, Lucas Vázquez, Mayoral.
Liverpool’s confirmed UCL final squad:
Karius, Clyne, Van Dijk, Wijnaldum, Lovren, Milner, Firmino, Salah, Henderson, Klavan, Moreno, Mane, Lallana, Mignolet, Can, Robertson, Ings, Solanke, Phillips, Jones, Ward, Woodburn, Camacho, Alexander-Arnold.
Head To Head
Saturday will be the ninth time that there has been a repeat European Cup/Champions League final, with the most famous previous meeting between these two sides coming in Paris 37 years ago when Alan Kennedy was the unlikely hero for Liverpool.
A 1-0 win in the 1980-81 European Cup final sealed a hat-trick for Paisley, and the two giants would not meet again until 2008-09, when once more it proved to be a memorable occasion for the English club.
Another 1-0 win at the Bernabeu put Liverpool in the driving seat of the first knockout round, and they emphatically drove home that advantage in the second leg with a Fernando Torres-inspired 4-0 win at Anfield – Madrid’s heaviest ever European defeat.
The most recent meetings went the way of the Spanish side, though, as a Liverpool team struggling after losing Luis Suarez were beaten 3-0 at home and 1-0 away in the 2014-15 group stages
Liverpool to win…
Fulham to win..